William Gregory

Both of the victims in the William Gregory case lived in the same apartment complex in Kentucky. Gregory was accused and convicted of rape and burglary of the first victim and of the attempted rape of the second victim. He was sentenced to consecutive sentences of seventy years. The attacks occurred approximately one month apart.

At trial, the prosecution presented evidence that Gregory also lived in the apartment complex. Both victims identified him, the second victim through a show-up procedure. Forensic evidence consisted of hairs found in the stocking cap worn and left behind by the assailant. A forensic analyst testified that the hairs were of Negroid origin, they shared "unusual characteristics" with Gregory's hairs, and were "more than likely" from Gregory. The victim testified that she had not had any African American visitors in her apartment. The analyst's testimony was invalid because there is not sufficient empirical data on the frequency of various class characteristics in human hair to determine that hairs are "unusual."

Gregory was convicted and sentenced to 70 years in prison.

He contacted the Innocence Project after his appeals failed, asserting his innocence. The Innocence Project proceeded to locate, preserve, and secure the release of the hair evidence. The hairs were tested using mitochondrial DNA testing, a relatively new form of DNA testing. Initially, one hair was tested and excluded Gregory as the source. Before agreeing to release Gregory, however, the prosecution insisted that the rest of the hairs be tested. The state had the hairs tested at their own expense. These results of further testing also excluded Gregory.

When he was released in 2000, William Gregory became the first person to be exonerated by mitochondrial testing alone and the first inmate to be exonerated based on DNA testing in Kentucky. He had served seven years of his sentence.

He later filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit accusing detectives of withholding evidence of two other rapes in the area about the same time. The lawsuit against the city of Louisville and the state of Kentucky was later settled for a total of $4.6 million, with the city paying $3.9 million and the state $700,000.

About the Registry

The National Registry of Exonerations is a project of the Newkirk Center for Science & Society at University of California Irvine, the University of Michigan Law School and Michigan State University College of Law. It was founded in 2012 in conjunction with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law. The Registry provides detailed information about every known exoneration in the United States since 1989—cases in which a person was wrongly convicted of a crime and later cleared of all the charges based on new evidence of innocence.

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We welcome new information from any source about exonerations already on our list and about cases not in the Registry that might be exonerations.